The present invention relates to claw or ring binders of the type commonly used to store flexible sheet material, such as paper, having mounting openings for removably/slidably receiving the binder claws. More particularly, the present invention relates to improvements in claw binders of the type described, wherein means are provided to selectively vary the capacity of the binder, so as to accommodate same to store stacks of sheets of differing thickness, while permitting the overall thickness of the binder to be maintained at a minimum for any given stack thickness.
A prior attempt to selectively vary the capacity of a claw binder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,093,041, wherein the claw halves or rings are defined by two or more removably interconnected segments, which may be added or removed, as desired, to change the sheet storage capacity of the binder together with its overall thickness. A somewhat similar binder construction is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,823.